Christmas reprieve

The Christmas season offers  a reprieve from  extreme events that filled 2013. We’ve gone through fires, a ship oil leaking in the sea, a 7.2-magnitude earthquake and the strongest storm in history.

Human   suffering  should not define the year but instead, the amazine response of  people, communities, the Filipino nation and international friends should tell us what we’re made of.

The year 2013  may even end up in history as the year of the Filipina. This year gave us Miss World Megan Young, Miss International Bea Rose Santos, Miss Supranational Mutya Datul, Miss Universe 3rd runner up Ariella Arida.

And of course, in sports celebrityhood, we still have Manny Pacquiao.

This year  saw the conduct of successful elections. The congressional and local polls  in May and  barangay elections last October enlivened our democracy, despite all its  imperfections. For this,   we should be grateful.

The rough patch started with the August 16 sinking of the MV St. Thomas Aquinas off the coast of Talisay City that claimed 116 lives with  21 still missing.

Then the Zamboanga City siege in September, which claimed  hundred of lives in armed conflict, and displacing thousands , some of whom ended up fleeing to Cebu for safety.

The 7.2-magnitude  earthquake in Bohol and Cebu last October 15 jolted everyone to the reality of life in a fragile planet.

Nobody expected supertyphoon Yolanda/ Haiyan to cause so much damage.

Its off-the-charts wind speed of over 300 kilometers per hour and storm surges of up to seven meters were disastrous. It  will take years to rebuild and  rehabilitate P571 billion worth of property damage.

The global humanitarian mission that followed  Yolanda was  truly heartening when 34 countries raced to rescue people from the rubble  in Leyte, Samar, northern Cebu, Panay Island and elsewhere along the monster storm’s path.

Newly crowned Miss International Bea Rose Santiago captured this noble  moment, when she told judges:  “The whole world saw how my country suffered. One by one, other countries helped. You have opened my heart and eyes on what we can do to help each other.”

The season of the birth of the Messiah should help put things in perspective and energize communities to face the challenges ahead.

Disasters will not define or defeat us.